Past Haunts the Present
by tika15
Summary: A sacrafice used to save the village...The past comes back to help ten years later.
1. Unexpected

Unexpected 

The wind silently kissed her neck. Whispering caressing words in her ear, "I'll never let you go, never let you sacrifice yourself."

Haunting memories, taunting and twisting words.

"Who fooled you to think you're the one who must be the tool!"

Acting as he never did before. Spilling all emotions into the air. Loving they way he cared, hating the way he was scared.

"This is something I have to do for the safety of the village!"

She walked with her head held high into the battle. A Massive snake emerged from the ground. Using the advantage of its shadow, she stealthily crawled towards her victim. A sudden stop, holding her breath, but it was too late, she narrowly dodged a kunei. This seemed to go on forever, but the battle had progressed away from the village. She moved with the cover of nightfall, breathing heavily with each step. Blood crawling down her body, gasping for air. Scorch marks stinging against the cool breeze. The true enemy finally transpired before her.

"You are foolish if you think you can stop me."

She could only stand there glowering at him trying to regain her breath, clutching her side. The harder she pressed, the more pain shot through her body.

An eerie, piercing laugh echoed through the forest. She looked up and saw her opponent laughing. It's amusing to see your victim in pain and thinking she just wished to die. Mistake number 1. Buying her time, distracting him to build enough charka for one last move. One shot was all she had, knowing full well she didn't have enough to kill, but enough to injure him for many years to come. Her hair fell out of its usual braid and covered her face. A good to not let him see her eyes, so he couldn't read her mind. She fell to her knees, her palms touching the dirt floor.

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A stinging pain coursed through her body. She couldn't stop she was so close. Ducking to dodge a tree branch overhead, she felt so weak. Her eyes weighed heavy, creating another difficult task. She needed only one rest to catch her breath. She jumped down from the tree and walked slowly on the forest floor. Avoiding the road so as to bypass any travelers. Lifting her gaze she saw an old wooden bench. She painfully sat down in a position that wouldn't hurt as bad. The cool air felt good in her lungs. Her heavy breathing could be seen against the fog.

She jumped up quickly to dodge a kunai, grabbing one of her own to defend herself. She was in a low crouch staring around her, searching for the culprit, her next victim. The silence begged for her to keel over and die.

"After all these years you still give more attention to Sasuke and Sakura!"

She straightened up, flinching from the pain. The voice that broke the killer silence complained long enough for her to follow the noise. Silently peering around the massive oak tree.

The only person in her line of sight a pink-haired girl sitting on the floor rolling her eyes. She Jumped up to the lowest tree branch. Hidden in the leaves, she could see the argument unfold.

Leaning against the tree near the bubble gum haired girl was a young male around the same age. He seemed cool, collective, and had dark hair. Another male, older by about 10 years was a silver haired jounin. She then saw the boy who was complaining endlessly. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and cat-like markings on his cheeks.

Looking further in the clearing she saw many wooden targets, all of which had quite a few kunei's lying around them, untouched, and unharmed. A soft breeze chilled her neck, rustling the leaves below. The four ninjas beneath her didn't suspect a thing; they should have known that the leaves moved in an opposite direction they should have when a soft breeze pushed them. She reached into her side pouch and grabbed a weapon, thrusting it below.

The timing was almost perfect. She threw her weapon below, knocking the other one out of the air and to the ground before hitting it's loud blonde target.

"What the hell!" The obnoxious ninja said in shock.

She leaped down from her perch, landing in front of him, flinching as she did so. Staring around to find the attackers.

Now with a closer look, she saw that the dark haired ninja was of the long perished Uchiha clan. He and the masked jounin were on their guard. The pink-haired girl was slowly coming out of shock.

He came lunging swiftly from behind. Side-stepping around him, her kunai caught him on the side. She pulled back, holding in tears and screams of pain, showing no weaknesses. Not exactly getting away with it. The young woman, apparently a medic, saw the many wounds on her body when her cloak flipped open.

Two enemies fell to the floor. She struggled to get up, only to fall back down to her knees, coughing up blood. A kunai sticking out of her right shoulder, darkness enveloped her eyes. Reliving every horrible moment in her miserable life was torture enough, falling flat on the floor. Her eyes closed.

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"Sakura!" The young male of the Uchiha clan yelled to the medic.

'_What is she doing!' _He thought as he saw her dashing to help the mysterious female ninja.

"She could be one of them," he said to her as she pulled the kunei and started to heal the open wound.

"If she was, then why protect Naruto? Did you not see her headband? Its of Konoha." The medic replied hastily. She confused him endlessly, on and off missions and training.

"She could easily be one of the Akatsuki, fooling us to get to Naruto, sh-"

"It's no trick, she is of Konoha." The silent jounin said while wiping blood off his shuriken.

"Do you know her?" Sakura asked in amazement.

"We need to get her to Hokage Tsunade immediately." He replied curtly, ignoring the question and picking up the woman. Without saying anything else, he hastily went towards Konoha, leaving the three students in puzzlement.

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	2. What's your name?

"_What's your name?"_

A grin was placed on his face, laughing at the only attempt Konoha made to save itself…from him. He charged at the girl who was kneeling on the floor gasping for air. The closer he got, the more puzzled he became. She shouldn't have been able to stand; yet there she was. He stopped within 15 yards.

Frowning he asked, "Why the hell are you smiling?"

A voice so unlike her own answered through her labored breathing, laughing, "What…a…foolish man!"

Orochimaru looked around for the person who spoke. He saw the young woman's mouth move, but it wasn't her. It sounded deep, almost an ancient sounding male. He returned his gaze to her. Pain was etched upon her face as she roared into the night. With a closer look, he could see that her eyes were a green color with oddly shaped pupils.

"Could it be- " he started as she began to change form.

She screamed endlessly, sounding more like a battle cry. He rushed forward thinking that she was defenseless. His attack, however, failed. He was knocked backwards nearly 100 yards.

His mouth moved as if he was talking to her, but she could hear nothing.

"Is she going to ok?" She heard in the distance,

"She'll be fine."

It was quiet for a few moments, "I thought she was dead."

She started to open her eyes, but all she saw were two blurry people talking by her bed. One was a female with blonde hair. The other was difficult to see because a mask covered most of his face. Her eyed closed again.

"We all thought she was dead. We have to be careful; she might be Orochimaru's pet." The woman stated. '_I wouldn't be surprised if she was.'_

The room fell silent. 10 minutes passed by and the patient started to stir.

"How are you feeling?"

The young woman sat up, "Oh I feel marvelous, like the day after you give birth." She answered sarcastically.

"You need to take these," A pink-haired medic said as she passed the patient some medicine.

"How long have I been out?" She asked after swallowing the pills.

The medic looked at her old clipboard, muttering to herself, "Almost a week. You heal fast, so you should be out of here at least by tomorrow."

The patient stared at the medic. Feeling insecure the nurse asked, "Is there something wrong?"

She continued to stare "You look familiar."

"Do I? What can you remember?" The nurse asked as she pulled a pencil to write everything down to put on file. The patient thought a moment.

"Ah yes! I remember now. On my way here I got into a fight. You were there! And there was a loud blonde ninja, a raven haired Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake." She said more to herself than the nurse.

The medic smiled, "Yes that is exactly what happened. My name is Sakura Haruno. The Uchiha is Sasuke and-" but she was cut off.

"I'm not loud!" A blonde ninja said while crouching on the windowsill, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Say, how do you know Kakashi?"

'Naruto Uzumaki huh?' She thought to herself, 'There is something about him that seems familiar.' A voice in her head said.

"Naruto! You aren't supposed to come in here like that!" Sakura yelled at him.

"Well I-I," Naruto stammered.

"I could get into a lot of trouble you twit!" Pulling her fist back while charging chakra. Swinging at his left cheek.

"Wha-"

Her punch never made it to his face; it instead landed in the patients' hand.

'How did she block my attack without at least being hit away?!'

"Resorting to violence isn't always the answer." She said while looking at the floor. She glanced and saw Naruto sticking his tongue out at Sakura.

"Ow!" He screamed after she punched him.

"So," Sakura started as Naruto sat and rubbed his cheek, "How do you know Kakashi-sensei?"

The young woman smiled, "We go way back, probably when you guys were just born."

"Whoa!" Naruto shouted, "You're _that _old!"

The woman's hand twitched, "What the hell!? I'm not old! You know for a…what 19 year old?" Naruto nodded his head, "You really act 12."

His draw dropped. It was obvious he was getting mad. "Hey!"

She smirked. 'I didn't think he would get angry that fast.'

Sakura held him back as he was yelling and flailing his arms and legs. Naruto finally calmed down and sat on the windowsill. The woman seemed to be gazing off into space. Sakura picked up her old clipboard and started looking at all the notes that Tsunade-sama wrote. The more she read, the more she confused and shocked she became. Noticing this, Naruto walked over to read the notes as well.

_'The patient has many wounds, some infected. They seem to be old and not from recent battles. Has a scar on her lower back. It is long and looks as if a sword made it. On the left shoulder there is a mark with three symbols, probably a curse mark. When touched, several other marks appear, encircling the original three. It seems as though someone successfully attempted to seal the curse. The seal is unknown. In the stomach region there seems to be-'_ The rest was cut off.

"This must be an important case is Tsunade covered up the words with a jutsu." Sakura thought aloud.

"Well then, undo it." Naruto retorted.

"It isn't that easy. If Tsunade wants it covered, then she uses a powerful jutsu that I can't get through."

Naruto turned to look at the other woman in the room. '_She doesn't even look as if anything is wrong with her. She seems fine, yet-'_

"What's your name?" he asked.

She looked up at him. His face lost all childish demeanors and grew serious. Sakura looked at the top of the clipboard. '_How odd! There is no name here." _

She still didn't answer him.

"Hey!" Naruto said angrily, "I asked you a que-"

She interrupted him, "What concern is it of yours? Why is it so important that you need to know who I am or how I know Kakashi-san?"

The two stood there dumbfounded. Naruto didn't intend on offending her. He was worried about the safety of his village and only acted on instinct, thinking she was there to attack.

"Her name is Astarin Kowaku." All heads turned towards the door.

'_Wow, the one time I let my guard down someone sneaks up on me.' _Astarin thought.

In walked a silver-haired Jonin with his face covered to the bridge of his nose with his headband tilted to cover his left eye. Kakashi's face was emotionless. He was looking at Astarin. Sakura glanced at her. She was difficult to read, but for a few seconds she saw her hurt, angry, sad, happy, and guilty at the same time. It went as quickly as it appeared, putting on a mask.

"Let me know if you need anything." Sakura said as she was leaving the room. She dragged Naruto along.

"Hey let me go!"

"Shut up! You need to leave anyway." Their argument drifted off down the hall and could still be heard with the door closed.

Astarin looked at Kakashi. He was standing in front of the window staring at nothing in particular. She stood up and walked over to him placing her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her hand and shifted his gaze down.

"We all thought…everyone tried looking…I thought you had died." He said. She removed her hand and moved to sit on the windowsill. Looking out the window to gaze at the clouds. She didn't know what to say.

"What happened after you left?" He asked. She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. A single tear flowed down her cheek.

Astarin Kowaku [The first name isn't pronounce how it's spelled, but I'm not sure how to explain it. Co-Walk-Ku

**Authors note: Hey!!! Thanks for the wonderful reviews!!! I forgot an author's note on the last one, but just to clear it up…the battle between Orochimaru and Astarin happened a while back and then when she meets up with Sasuke (let's pretend he wasn't an idiot and left because I kind of forgot about that when I was writing :) Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi occurs a few years after the battle. I didn't mean for this chapter to be so long…please just bear with me, it'll probably happen a lot where the length changes. Thanks for reading and please continue to do so. tika15**

**p.s. haha I know I spelled jonin wrong in the first chapter, please forgive me :**


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